Life in Denim and Flip Flops

Sorry. This week has been busy. Work has kept me busy, and dinner at my great aunt and uncle's while doing laundry ate up one evening, and grocery shopping/errand running stole another. Monday was a day of long, long meetings. Tuesday was more digestible, with a one-on-one w/ Meris and another planning meeting. I feel like I'm learning so much every day. Like how to decorate a room for a luau. I'll fill you in later, but let's just say, the library is known for throwing a good party. Manda came to visit this weekend. Sometimes you don't realize what you're missing until someone is there to remind you. Living alone, I don't go out to dinner by myself, and I haven't seen a movie in the theaters since Amy and I saw Prince Caspian the day after graduation. It was nice to be able to go out and do that this weekend. I saw 2 movies and only ate meals in the apt today. And it was so nice just to hang w/ Manda. Now the problem is, I really need to be productive. ...

So church Sunday morning was really nice. The service was nice and I really liked the music. I think I'll probably end up going there most of the summer. Once the student population returns to Dubuque I might end up back at the church across the street as it's closer to Loras, but I think the one I went to this weekend is closer to UD. We'll see. Sunday was nice to see my extended family again. The little kids were so much fun. If I had a quarter of their energy I'd be set. I really like the staff at the library and I feel comfortable there, but it's just a totally different environment with my family. And family dinners for get togethers are always comforting. They, in themselves, are my comfort food. Today we did staff bonding (no...not staff bondage!) We did an exercise that helped us to define ourselves in 3 words from a deck of cards. I ended up with challenging (as in I question ideas/ play devil's advocated), simultaneous (as in I can juggle more than on...

The apartment is finally starting to feel like home. There are pictures on the wall, curtains on the bedroom windows, and now I actually have cable and internet in my apartment. I'm still not quite sure what I'm going to put in the hallway or what is going on the wall in my bedroom. I don't have anything from my previous life that is blue and brown. That's really made it fun to decorate that room, because it's meant buying some stuff and piecing together some stuff from my childhood bedroom. Slowly but surely I'm unpacking. Now I'm just looking for some furniture for the guest bedroom. :) Work has been going well. I'm going to fit into the staff real well. I snapped photos of the library early Friday morning so hopefully soon I'll get them uploaded somewhere and e-mailed out, or maybe posted here. While on my photo tour of the library I realized that there are 2 pianos in the library and what looks like a harpsichord. I have no idea why this is true...

It's official. I'm the Reference and Instruction Librarian. :) So far it's been all orientation, but I really like it. The staff has all been really wonderful. NOt that I thought they were faking their enthusiasm during the interview, but they all actually seem like they like each other. The work environment is really cool, and totally my style. I'm a little overwhelmed with names, but that's mostly the student workers and the random faculty walking through. I'm pretty good with the permanent library staff members. Granted with only like 11 of them, it's a little easier here than other places. Speaking of being easier here than other places. Never before have I been more grateful to live on a hill/bluff. It seems like at this time, I'm in one of the only major cities in IA not to be dealing with major, major flooding issues. I know the Mississippi is high too, but it has yet to cause the major problems for the DBQ area that they're experiencing in I...

So a few more observations. One of these days I'll actually talk about something significant, but for today I'm just going to post the thoughts; the analysis can come later. DBQ is not very pedestrian friendly. Ok, well not the part near me. I haven't yet found a route to walk to work (15 mins by foot...maybe) that doesn't involve a 5-way stop sign or 2 awkward intersections that involve 3 directions of traffic and no stop signs or crosswalks. Thankfully Madison has made me a much bolder pedestrian than DBQ is used to. It's hard to decorate your walls alone, especially when you're not very good with eyeballing what is level. My hands are really out of shape when it comes to playing piano. I'm not a fan of sitting in my bathtub during severe weather, but if push comes to shove, I can make it quite comfortable. Living in Dubuque is kinda like living halfway between my college life and my grad school life. It's not really big enough to have it's own new...

I'm here. Not quite all unpacked. But definitely getting settled. Thanks to a random unsecured wireless connection I've got internet access until the cable company can get here next Saturday to hook me up. Here are some observations so far: Everyone in Dbq has been really friendly so far. I mean it's not like I expected them to be mean or something, but the lady at city hall, the banker, and even the cashier at Target were really nice. Color matching is way easier when you buy everything from Target. Want curtains in the same shade of teal as your bedspread? Just four aisles down. :) I'm super not-observant when I'm tired. My landlord had left a ladder in my bedroom when I got here Friday. I moved all my crap in and then decided to make an errand and grocery run. I spend a bulk of the rest of the night in my bedroom accomplishing stuff. It was only when my dad asked a few hours later that I even noticed the ladder was gone. Yup. I'm that good when tired. Ceilin...

The wedding was really nice this weekend. It was totally chill and relaxed. A nice change when it comes to weddings. Now I get to transition back into packing world. Right now two of my parents' vehicles and my uncle's truck that we borrowed are packed pretty full to take down to Dubuque tomorrow. I'll be back in Janesville tomorrow night to do some more cleaning and packing/searching for things that I thought existed at my parents house, but now I'm not sure existed at all :) It was a really nice weekend and only slightly stressful. I hope I can get through tomorrow without it getting way too crazy :)